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With the economic crisis and falling pound there are lots of Britons trapped in Spain, often pensioners or others on fixed income, who can’t sell up and go home, and who are struggling to pay the bills. Does that sound familiar? Are you one of them, or do you know someone in this situation? If so, please send me a PM ASAP please.
Thanks
Mark
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An interesting situation is also occuring in the UK Mark, would these Brits stranded abroad be any better off in the UK I wonder?
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Peter
Glad yer back posting as I know where I would rather be trapped.So many are trapped in the U.K right now.
Not many able to retire abroad right now due to the sterling and stuck here to get well and truly screwed by this government.Many can move back here if they bought at the right time and when the exchange rate was reversed say 1.45. in say 2000 would probably have some equity if bought in a good location.
Drop the price to say the original purchase price,rent in the U.K until the prices drop by the reported 30 % and yer home and dry.
Thats if yer mad enough to come back ear.
Just Frank 8) -
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@Just Frank wrote:
Peter
Glad yer back posting as I know where I would rather be trapped.So many are trapped in the U.K right now
Thats if yer mad enough to come back ear.
Trapped in your own country??? I have never heard that one before.
Why do you still speak English if you hate your country so much and think it is mad to live here?
Do you think that UK will always be a country of X-factors and
ignorant people? Believe me, that was just a temporary phase due to
availability of easy credits and bad education in schools.In 10 years UK will be different, people will have lived a devastating economic period and will come out smarter, more realistic and wiht much better expectations from life.
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Hmm,….
Maybe we’re just an Island of moaners by nature? I don’t know, but it never ceases to amaze me the number of British people that having had the good fortune of being born here with all the benefits that bestows, then choose to continually denigrate and knock the place. Of course there are things we could all complain about, that’s only natural, it’s a god given right, a perk of being British. However on balance and when set against the security, freedom and opportunities we often take very much for granted, the vitriol with which many of my fellow countrymen slag the place of their birth says more about them, then accurately reflects a balanced view of life on our old little rocky island. Compared to our grandparents, we ‘little Englanders’ of today have it easy. I was born ‘English’, well Yorkshire, with some Welsh, Mountain Ash, Williams blood from my grandfather on my mothers side. Dai Williams stood five foot five in his hobnailed boots and he served in the trenches during the ‘Great’ War. He survived the shelling, the bullets and the bayonets ok but after a couple of years at the front he was badly gassed and sent home on a medical ship. He convalesced and eventually recovered. Unfortunately for him due to his age and previous military service he was one of the first called up for the rematch. Again he survived the Second World War right through to VE day and was demobbed back to Civy Street and the coal mines. He died shortly after from pneumonia complicated by the damage to his lungs caused by the gassing thirty years earlier, and we moan today eh! Having travelled, lived and worked in all four corners of the UK, from the ‘Garden of England’ Kent, the beautiful but then troubled Ulster, to the Wild West of Kernow and the even wilder Cape Wrath in Sutherland, North West Scotland, I feel distinctly British as opposed to English. I love Britain, the history, the landscape and culture, I always have and I’m sure I always will. It’s a connection that grows stronger the more I travel and the older I become. So when British people knock the UK and especially when they do so by comparison to the latest holiday destination they’ve just returned from and are now thinking of moving to, it gets my back up and I get all defensive. Having said all this about the way I feel about our homeland then it could appear strange that I choose to leave this Sceptred Isle and joined the rush for a place in the sun!
Our decision to move away and live abroad had more to do with taking an opportunity to try something different and to experience a new life and culture, rather than any dissatisfaction with our lot in the UK. However this does not appear to be the case with many of our peers, who seem to be totally dissatisfied with how things had or were working out for them at home in Britain, and where they felt they UK was heading.
We are now back in the UK and have the most wonerfull, rich and fullfiling lives.
Pablo Silver or Lead?
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An article today with personal stories. I don’t know about “feeling the pinch” – should probably read “feeling full of despair”.
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Flosmicheal
Yep. Have to say that when the nipper has flown the nest I will be out of here
I dont like what this country is becoming and only see it as a down hill road from here on.
Flosmicheal . This is my opinion and if people feel trapped in Spain or any Euro Country then perhaps the fall in the exchange rates may be a selling opportunity.
There will be a mass exodus in this Country and demand is building to get out.
Yep it may be that where they go may not be better.
As Katy says she would move back tomorrow,I would move there tomorrow so thats two sides.
Please try to understand. 😉Just Frank 8)
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The UK would be better off if the people who continually run it down were to ship out. True it has problems, but what country has not?
Frank, hope you saved your money up to pay for your health care should you ever need it before retirement age, or benefits of any kind should you need them in Spain. If you think there is no crime etc in Spain, well…. 🙄We have several friends who have retired to Spain. Two couples sold their UK homes (after they moved to Spain to cover the increase in living costs since moving there. Too draining on income to keep two homes running. They are finding life quite difficult now and worrying, as their income is sterling based. They are not able to live to the standard to which they had become accustomed. Golf has been sidelined and entertainment, eating out etc. down to the minimum.
There’s more to life than sunshine! You can’t beat a cold & frosty morning! 🙂 -
Frank, I did not exactly say that I would move back tomorrow…was hypothetical, only if the climate was similar. Yesterday was 20C and the countryside is looking stunning. Do grit my teeth though when a tubo of beer on the beach is now 2GBP and a lovely country pub in Surrey sells real ale for 1.25GBP. Still, not much of a beer drinker anyway 😆
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Katy
Well at least you may have pubs that may remain open.
1.25 for a pint ? Bloody hell have one on me when yer next there sounds like wassy wassy land.Claire
Sister is living in Spain for the past 6 years and has received excellent care and standard of living and to them Spain is home.
Always can pop back in a couple of hours anyway though they havent bothered for 4 years as they say theres nothing to come back for.
Many friends that wouldnt come back if you paid them.
There is crime in every country so whats yer point.
There are always going to be a good percentage that thought the grass may have be greener but family ties and the unexpected always have and always will be reasons to what to come back to anywhere in the world/
The thing is that they had a go and for many its worked very well for many and good on em for having the balls to do it instead of the saddos sitting on fences blabbing .I told you so.
Who are you to come on a Spanish Forum and insult them ,dig dirt at every opportunity and when someone bring home the facts that this country is less than perfect you say they should be shipped out. 😕
As I say typical British atttidude that we are better than everyone else and no wonder other countries have little time for us.
This Country is a very sad reflection of its proud past ask the friends little girl who went to see father Christmas and wondered why she could sit on his lap like in the pictures and had to stand 6 feet away.
As I said the demand is there to move and many do ( Flosmicheal) feel trapped in their own country thats got it wrong in almost every case.
See how you feel at the end of 2009.Just Frank 8)
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Claire
Just noticed
They are finding life quite difficult now and worrying, as their income is sterling based. They are not able to live to the standard to which they had become accustomed. Golf has been sidelined and entertainment, eating out etc. down to the minimum.Feel gutted about yer freinds not being able to play golf and eat out.
WHY ?
Because the bloody currency being the U.K £1 is worth next to nothing and it wil get worse
They will heve just sell of the properties and gosh lifes a real bith at times.
So are you going to blame the Spanish for the strength of the Euro now?
Never mind Flosmicheal has a whole 30.000 Euros ready to pounce when property is worth next to nothing so there will be some winners. 😕Just Frank 8)
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@Just Frank wrote:
Katy
As I say typical British atttidude that we are better than everyone else and no wonder other countries have little time for us.
This Country is a very sad reflection of its proud past ask the friends little girl who went to see father Christmas and wondered why she could sit on his lap like in the pictures and had to stand 6 feet away.
As I said the demand is there to move and many do feel trappen in their own country thats got it wrong in almost every case.
See how you feel at the end of 2009.You seem to have an obsession with being trapped. This country is what it is. I was not born here, I lived in USA, Romania, Germany and Italy and find UK to be better
in many ways and worse in some ways.I have never heard any Romanian, US citizen German citizen or Italian citizen to say that they are trapped in their own countries. People left their countries because they found a better job somewhere else, because they got married somewhere else or simply because they found hapiness somewhere else.
MOreover, I have not heard any of the British people I know to say they feel trapped.
Hapiness is what you make of your life, the presence of Sun and even money cannot
make a person happy by themselves. -
Floshmicheal
You Posted.
MOreover, I have not heard any of the British people I know to say they feel trapped.HELLooooooo Are you really serious. 😯
Do you know any British people then . 😯
This has got to be one of the all time mis-quotes ever seen on the forums.
Dont know what country yer in right now but it cant be this one. 😆
Romanians and such dont have to moan they can always just get on a plane for the free lunch over here.
The ones that cant seem to get treated well are the ones that have worked their nuts off putting onto a system and being honest with claims.Just Frank 8)
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@Just Frank wrote:
Floshmicheal
You Posted.
MOreover, I have not heard any of the British people I know to say they feel trapped.HELLooooooo Are you really serious. 😯
Do you know any British people then . 😯
This has got to be one of the all time mis-quotes ever seen on the forums.
Dont know what Country yer in right now but it cant be this one. 😆The British people I deal with are my University colleagues and they are happy with their lives. They all travel abroad whenever they have time to do so and do not complain much about having to come back to their old Blighty..
My neighbors are also well educated people who are happy in their skins and try to raise
their children with a positive view of the surrounding world.So yes, I do not know anybody who is leashed to stay in UK.
Maybe you should change your buddies before your view over life is totally distorted.
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Frank. the 1.25 was for half a pint as I said I rarely drink the stuff.
Have to say you sound absolutely delighted that the pound has crashed 😕
Going to ramble now…well lots of others do it 😉
On Friday there were 8 armed robberies within 24 hours in Málaga. There have been a few incidents around my area too. Unemployment in Andalucía almost 20%. If you are not a pensioner here or paying into the system you will be asked for your credit card unless it is an emergency and have the EHC. One of the major health insurance providers is having financial difficulties and their policies have horrendous small print. People who thought they were fully covered are faced with having to pay 50E or more pm for drugs they thought were covered under the policy. Swings and roundabouts…nowhere is perfect.
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Flosmicheal
You posted
The British people I deal with are my University colleagues and they are happy with their lives. They all travel abroad whenever they have time to do so and do not complain much about having to come back to their old Blighty..Probably dont have much to moan about as they have Daddies Gold Card to keep the happy. 😉
Mummy makes sure they have their vests on and a packed lunch.The rest of us live in the real world.
Positive views on the surrounding world 😯
Hope yer neighbours dont read your postings on this forum then.Just Frank 8)
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Just Frank – you gotta chill out man otherwise the only way you’ll be leaving this country is in a box. No the UK is not perfect – nowhere is – but its what you make of it. If your attitude is gloomy in the UK then its likely to be gloomy elsewhere. You’ll soon find something to moan about wherever you live – like the intense sunshine and lack of rain in Spain!
As for the chip on your shoulder regarding university students – i can only guess by your comments that you are not university educated. Or maybe you are, but were jealous at others in class at having a better time – perceived by you to be because of the many sugar dadies and sugar mummies? Sorry, but get a grip man. What deluded world do you live in? Most students embrace poverty which is character building. You certainly do not appear to live in the real world.
As for being trapped. Nothing more than an excuse. If you have a passport, money for a flight then the only thing stopping you is you! Put your mind to it and you can achive anything. The rest is just excuses.
And as for those people who move to Spain and don’t realise that there is the same problems, crime, unemployment etc. – who are these people!? Idiots i guess – a country without crime, problems and unemployment? Get a grip people please!
Finally, to those people who’s life style has been impacted by the currency changes – tough! Its life. You are owed nothing. If you can’t afford a 10% loss in the value in sterling its probably not a bad thing curtailing the golf and meals out. You’ve had it good for years. Time to stop moaning and start living within your means.
Sorry, rant over.
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Hi Katy
Yep heard its going to be 25% before to long.
Crime is a sad reflection around the world right now and sadly its getting worse even where you live.
Have to say thats a big increase from my time down there and a big worry.
Much of the problem in the U,K is the influx of foreign workers and do gooders that have allowed kids to be raised without discipline.
Well I live in much smaller area in the U.K and not a day goes by without someone getting mugged beaten up or done in.
Can remember when such news would be front page and cause an
outrage now it hadly get a mention
Could be worse if you look around at some part of the world.
£2.50 for pint thats about right and have friends on the outskirts of Benalmadena who are paying just over a Euro for a large San Miguel.
Depends where you are buying.Regards
Just Frank 8) -
Hi marcoloco10
Nah . Not educated that well just secondary school and council house in a very rough area so thats all of the character building I needed
Just happen to think that all troubles dont start and end in Spain as some will have you beleive
Again got me wrong and pretty chilled out just gets me arse up when some portray the Britain and the British as some sort of superior intellegence and live in a perfect country that everyone is suppose to follow.
Again the topic is around people that are trapped in Spain as you say its rare to be trapped anywhere.
Again we agree that its time that many start living within means a lifes a bitch some times.As you say rant over
Regards
Just Frank 8) -
Glad to hear it Frank.
I too grew up on a Council Estate but also went to University. And trust me, the majority of students that i met (including those with better off parents) were eating beans and buying stale bread just like me!
The UK has its faults – but where does’nt!?
All i was getting at is life is what you make of it.
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The Grass is always different, if not greener!
The one thing that seems to unite this growing wave of émigrés is not age, or class or even wealth, it’s the shared opinion that the UK is going to the dogs and the politicians, seem oblivious or powerless to do anything to change it! This is translating into an attitude of ‘the grass is greener’ abroad and there appears a huge head of momentum for us to desert Blighty and flock to a place in the sun.
In many cases the seeds of these ‘dreams’ are sown on holiday. After a few days on vacation unwinding and relaxing, you suspend the reality of your life back home and enter that blissful, dreamy, stress-free state of “no shoes no news”. The school runs, the office politics and the bad weather temporarily fade becoming a dim and distant memory. This is a dangerous place to be, at least psychologically. Your guard is down; all the things you hate about your life and circumstance back home are suddenly and painfully magnified by the perfect life you could lead abroad. Right here right now, under the shade of this palm, cocktail in hand, looking out over the shimmering azure horizon. The really crazy thing is that you’re normally risk averse, sensible and sober partner, is also seeing the possibilities and actually agreeing with you for once……….
Grant and Jemima, fantasising about their escape to Umbria….. “Darling just think for the price of our terrace house in Battersea we could buy a farm, pay off the mortgage and put a £150k in the bank for a rainy day”. “Tabitha and Tarquin can learn Italian, I can paint water colours and you can do odd jobs and a bit of writing, what do you think?” “Yes! We could grow our own vegetables, keep a few goats, pick olives and tread the grapes. It’s a much healthier outdoor life for the children. Have another glass of Chianti darling”……..
Or Kevin and Shaza from the North West of England, deciding to start afresh with their kids Britney and Dylan, by opening an ‘All day breakfast’ bar in Benalmadena. This despite the fact that their only previous experience of bar ‘work’ was getting bladdered every weekend in the local!………”Well Shaza it’s sunnier than Bolton, Blackburn or even Blackpool! The beer, fags and rents cheap and more people speak English here then back ome. We’ve nuthing to loose!”
As an abstract dream it all works. However, as the end of the holiday looms and with it the realisation that they are going to return home, to clamber back onto the treadmill of their daily lives, the haze of optimism is soon replaced by the ‘black dog’ of reality. There is however always the lifestyle media, ably lead by Channel 4’s ‘A Place in the Sun’ and ‘Pay off your mortgage in a Year’ (by seemingly trebling your debt to buy over priced property abroad, on the assurance of a commissioned sales person that it’s a good investment), to lift your spirits. These and a plethora of other ‘foreign adventure’ programs such as BBC 2’s, ‘Get a new Life!’ try before you buy emigration program only serves to reinforce the idea, that a better utopian existence awaits them abroad.
It seems that there is a push and pull effect in action. The push to leave is driven by peoples negative perceptions of their work/life situation at home in modern Britain: – bad weather, high taxes, increased immigration to the UK (ironically), crime, European regulations (loss of power to Brussels), high cost of living, poor schools, poor health service, the pensions crisis. Also New Labour’s style/spin over substance (now being copied by the conservatives), lack of a credible opposition party, long working hours, traffic congestion etc. Basically it appears that the materialistic, consumption driven, rat race we are all caught up in at home, has lead us to an overwhelming sense of helplessness. This feeling of not having sufficient control over our lives leaves us feeling unhappy about the quality of life we are leading. We feel unfulfilled and guilty about the sort of present let alone the future we have created and are creating for our children. These feelings manifest themselves as increased anxiety and stress levels and this is one of the main causes of so many people looking for an escape route or way out.
On the other hand there is the pull to arrive in a new sunny place and start a new life: – better weather, lower taxes, lower crime, a slower pace, lower cost of living, better schools, good health care and generally a better quality of life. Immigrants! Well we’re the immigrant, so what’s the problem?
It appears many wage slaves saddled with an omnipresent sense of “so much more of life’s millstone to tread”, ahead of them in Britain. View a life in the sun with rose tinted glasses, as if to blind. This rose tinted view is encouraged and enhanced by the polar opposites of what people want to escape from and what they believe they are escaping to. This is to ignore the perceived wisdom, that when you live and work in a place where you’ve previously holidayed, the place you thought you knew and understood as a tourist, is often very different, in reality. This is to state the obvious, but often overlooked fact, that living and working abroad is a whole different circumstance from vacationing, down timing and chilling.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Pablo Silver or Lead?
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Well bet my council estate was worser than yours 😈
Trust me I have no regrets and feel very lucky even when things seem bad
As you say life is what you make it and I try to not let problems I have in Spain at the moment ruin my life.
No wheres perfect and that was my point also.Regards
Just Frank 8) -
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Pablo, I enjoyed reading your post.
Many people go through life wondering ‘what if?’
Most people regret not what they did but what they did not do. Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side, however whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, sometimes we should take stock of our situation and be thankful for what we have no matter where we are.Personally, I like to have goals and something to look forward to in the future. I might get run over by a bus in the meantime, but thats fate.
My cunning plan is to retire to Spain in 3 years time, exchange rate permitting!
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Pablo – a brilliant post. If you’re not already, you should be a writer!
The Grant, Jemima / Kevin, Shaza paragraphs were painfully spot on.Returning to ‘feeling the pinch’ – even my dog is worried about the cost of living because the large can of Pedigree Chum here is now nearly 2 euros a can.
That’s almost 14 euros in dog money. 😯 -
Some Brits feeling the pinch more than others?
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_19393.shtml -
In the 70s & 80s, Spain had the most recoded Bank robberies in the world. It also had the most Banks/branches per person in the western world. If you can call Franco period & immediately after his death as Western world.
Most Spanish will open an account near to their homes. This did not surprise me as all the banks/branches offered the same product i.e. deposit taking. There was no mortgages, credit cards, Insurances & if you needed to borrow interest rates were around 18%. Due to this the Spaniards needs, to fully exploit the banking system was not required.
The so called managers were ill trained. Were appointed as they were either related to well to do families or had contacts.
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A recent article in the Telegraph was highlighting this problem for Brits living in France right now. With current exchange rates and a more expensive cost of living there now, many Brits are desperately trying to return to UK, but unable to sell their overpriced properties (which make Spain’s seem very expensive in comparison).
This problem seems universal for Brits in the Eurozone now.
To what extent have programmes like Channel 4’s Place in the Sun etc contributed to people moving abroad for what they thought would be a cheaper cost of living?
Now, Kirstie Allsop of ‘Location, Location’ is spitting feathers at sites like http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk for having a vested interest in seeing price falls in the UK, but strangely does not mention that she and Phil Spencer are also estate agents and were talking the market up as if it could never fall.
What batch of progs. will Channel 4 come up with next?
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Shakeel, I was not blaming them in my post, merely stating that she is spitting feathers at that website. However she IS most definitely blaming that site and it’s forum posters.
Having watched many of her’s and Spencer’s programmes, they at no time mentioned that property can also fall whilst definitely telling people where to invest as ‘sure fire winners’ (could be mistaken for their personal advice however since they said it on air) in similar fashion to the agents who mis-sold in Spain. Both are of course estate agents with a vested interest in property rising, not falling!
Then asked the question about the influence of Channel 4 on people buying in the sun because of lower costs etc. 😉 😉 😉
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Shakeel, she was talking about http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk which was in my earlier post.
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